


25/05 Monday 8. Hope

by Lif61 (UltimateFandomTrash)



Series: #SpnStayAtHome [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Humor, Love, M/M, POV Castiel, Prompt Fill, Romance, SPNStayAtHome, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:55:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24373138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltimateFandomTrash/pseuds/Lif61
Summary: Sam urges Castiel to do something with his hope and tell Dean how he feels.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: #SpnStayAtHome [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1704448
Kudos: 26





	25/05 Monday 8. Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Written for #SpnStayAtHome on tumblr run by @pray4jensen, @bend-me-shape-me, and @helianthus!
> 
> What's this? Me posting a story on time? *le gasp* Oui, it's here, this week's story _on time_.

An elbow with the all the force of a large man behind it rammed into the middle of Castiel’s back. It didn’t hurt, but it  _ was _ annoying.

He tilted his head, and hissed his anxious frustration back at Sam. His best friend just shoved him. It was a light shove, but Castiel let it move him, knowing Sam didn’t like to feel powerless around angels.

“Just go ask him,” Sam urged.

Hope flared in Castiel’s chest as he set his eyes on Dean, who was talking up one of the servers at the hotel’s continental breakfast. His eyes were bright, hair artfully mussed, and even in the indoor lighting Castiel could see the freckles on Dean’s skin. They were like marks on him, targets, telling Cas exactly where to put his mouth. Dean flashed him a smile and held up a mug of coffee, gesturing out towards him.

Cas sidled up to him, the hope in his chest sputtering out and crackling into disappointing sparks when Dean didn’t even look at him.

“Mornin’, sunshine. Got you some coffee.”

Cas gratefully took the steaming mug from him that warmed his fingers as he held it, and followed Dean down the buffet line.

“You’re quiet this morning,” Dean observed.

Stupid. This was stupid. Castiel was stupid. Just because he had strong,  _ profound _ feelings for Dean, it didn’t mean they were reciprocated. But Sam seemed to think otherwise. Castiel could desperately use his help right now, but any chance for that died when he saw Sam just getting a plate from all the way at the start of the line of tables.

Dean sniffed at some scrambled eggs, shrugged, and piled them onto his already-full plate.

“What’s got your panties in a twist?” Dean asked.

“I don’t wear panties.”

How was it that  _ that _ was the first thing he’d said to Dean that day? His friend gave him a mischievous look, eyebrows quirked just so, eyes filled with a teasing light. And Castiel didn’t even want to focus on his lips. Those annoyingly perfect, cupid’s bow lips.

Dean then added, words not making a lick of sense, “Well, I guess one of us has to.”

Did he mean himself? What? Castiel tilted his head at him, squinting his eyes in befuddlement. And while he did that he tried to not picture Dean as he had just implied.

Dean met Castiel’s gaze, but then turned away, cheeks reddening profusely. He cleared his throat. Then, as if he needed something to say, he nodded over to a table in the back that would give them a clear view of the room, and said, “Let’s sit there.”

They took their seats.

Castiel opened his mouth. Then hesitated.

How could he not do this? He’d faced hordes of demons, he’d gone into Hell for Dean and had pieced his very body back together. He’d led armies, averted the Apocalypse, faced losing those he loved again and again and again.

Yet he couldn’t make the right words fall from his mouth.

Dean, mid-chew observed Cas, eyebrows low as he frowned.

“Okay, angel, what’s wrong?”

Angel. It hadn’t been said as a denotation of what he was, but fondly, like a nickname, a pet name.

Cas met those crystalline, apple green eyes and all he could do was stare. His Grace pounded and rushed inside his body.  _ He _ was pounding, like his very existence was beating in time with Dean’s heart. It was calm, not racing. But it burst through Cas like a drug and the rest of the world fell away.

Before he knew what was happening, he grabbed hold of the hand reaching before him, an anchor of hope to pull him to safety. The world didn’t come back. There was just Dean. Castiel dangled over that precipice yawning below him, heart in his hands, and he said, “I love you.”

The world came back. The clink of silverware against plates and bowls, people talking amicably with each other, the thuds of their feet as they walked about the carpeted room. Dean was staring right at him. Castiel’s chest hurt, and he didn’t dare breathe.

The man he’d risked everything for went back to eating.

Castiel knew his heart didn’t need to beat, but thought it might’ve stopped anyway.

Finally, Dean said, tone casual, “Damn, it’s about time.”

“What?” Castiel growled, all that anxiety suddenly turning into rage about Dean’s blasé reaction.

Dean wiped his mouth, and placed his napkin down. Their eyes met again, and Dean’s were open and honest and… loving.

“What, you drag me from perdition, piece me back together, you save my life, and I save yours, I break through Naomi’s brainwashing, and you don’t think I love you? You gave up an  _ army _ for me, Cas, don’t you even dare think I’d hesitate to do the same.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything?” Cas said, too stunned to snarl, to bellow. His heart had started again, and Dean was filling it like he always had since he’d become his charge.

Sam sat down at the other end of their square table, taking a sip from his orange juice before observing, “Because he’s an idiot.”

“Hey!” Dean retorted.

“You’re an idiot too,” Sam told Cas. “It took you guys way too long.”

“What, and you knew?” Dean asked.

“Maybe.”

Sam was kicked under the table like they were all a bunch of five-year-olds. But instead of retaliating, he said to Cas, “See, I knew your hope would turn someplace good.”

Dean rolled his eyes, grabbed his plate, and after discreetly glancing around the crowded dining area, held his hand out to Cas. “What’s say you and I get away from annoying brothers?”

Cas forgot about his coffee as he took his hand, and then his — was he his boyfriend now? — love led him away.


End file.
